1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling a boot sequence of a server, and more particularly to a method for controlling a boot sequence of a server by a rewritable removable storage device.
2. Related Art
Currently, with the rapid development and popularization of network technologies, networks have become the first tool for the masses to acquire information and make communications in daily work and life. In the networks, servers can offer various services to clients (for example, allowing or restricting the access to shared resources, automatically backing up data, and accessing operating data from remote computers).
In the server management field (In the field of server management), in some cases, management software may request the target server to perform a network boot via a pre-boot execution environment (PXE) or virtual media, so as to complete certain specific management operations. In order to boot a server with network, a variety of solutions have been developed for controlling the boot sequence of the server. The PXE, as an extension of a remote program load (RPL) technology among the network technologies, is used to start up a computer from a remote server and using a remote system in the case that no startup system is configured or even no hard disk is configured, which can also install system or applications via a remote server.
There are mainly the following several conventional methods for controlling a boot sequence of a server.
In a first solution, a target server is set, such that a default status of a network card is “Enabled”, so as to determine whether to boot the target server from the PXE or not by controlling a PXE server program.
In a second solution, the boot sequence is altered in an operating system through a utility program provided by a basic input/output system (BIOS) of the target server.
In a third solution, the boot sequence of the BIOS of the server is controlled by a management chip such as a baseboard management controller (BMC).
In a fourth solution, the boot sequence of the server is changed by controlling remote ISO files for virtual media.
However, among the above four solutions, the defect of the first solution lies in that the PXE server program needs to be completely controlled, and the defects of the second solution, the third solution, and the fourth solution lie in high hardware requirements.
To sum up, the solutions in the prior art have the following defects. Firstly, the cost is increased due to the high hardware requirements. Secondly, the reliability is reduced since the hardware and operating system of the server need to be modified. Thirdly, the solutions are rather complex and inconvenient to implement.